Homeless on the Range

A strong northwest wind buffeted the double-wide trailer near the entrance to Two Winds Ranch where Alvin “Bully” Caddin and his wife, Willa, raised their two children. Off to the left, a string of rental horses stood head to tail against the wind. Past the sand-filled English riding ring, cattle mooed. Caddin leaned out the window of his Dodge pickup and gave instructions to two ranch hands in Spanish. His cattle dog, Dolly, stared out the windshield, keeping track of the cows circling in their pen.

Caddin and his family moved to Two Winds Ranch almost 30 years ago, just before the Conejo Valley began to develop. He remembers shopping for groceries at the Oakdale Market on Thousand Oaks Boulevard and taking the kids to the Newbury Park drive-in. The market is now an antique mall, the drive-in is long gone, and up here, where Caddin once found nothing but coyote bush and pasture, subdivisions with names like The Trails and Arbor Hills suggest new arrivals can buy a piece of the valley’s past.

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Caddin runs the largest full-service public equestrian center this side of Burbank, in an area that has lost two facilities in the last three years (Cal Lutheran University closed its equestrian operation in 1995 and the Academy Equestrian Center moved to Somis last year).

But development may have finally caught up with Bully Caddin, as it has the pastures through which he once led folks on rides. An upscale housing development gobbled up his first equestrian center, and now he is threatened with eviction from his second site--public land managed by the city of Thousand Oaks and its recreation agency.

This Conejo Valley cowboy is a city slicker by birth, born in East L.A. decades ago--Caddin won’t say how old he is. His mother nudged him toward horses when guns and drugs threatened their neighborhood. The family eventually moved to Whittier to be close to the stable where Bully and his brother worked, and Bully took over the operation when the owner moved on. Caddin headed west in the ‘70s and tried to buy a piece of land before the subdivisions went in. He finally settled for leasing 50 acres not far from his present location on Lynn Road when a real estate agent convinced him it would be 20 years before the area developed.

With a name like Bully, you might expect a good old boy, a schmoozer. Not Caddin (his mother gave him the nickname when he snorted like a bull in his crib). “I don’t talk politician,” said Caddin, referring to his problems, which began three years ago when he lost the lease on his original ranch site. He was uprooted when the owner sold the property to developers creating the Dos Vientos Ranch project--2,300 houses in a $700-million development.

Because Caddin’s ranch was considered by many--locals and officials alike--to be an important recreational resource, the Conejo Valley Open Space Conservation Authority helped Caddin relocate on public land, across the street from his original location.

Under the terms of an agreement with COSCA, a joint agency of the city of Thousand Oaks and Conejo Recreation and Parks District, Caddin will be allowed to operate Two Winds Ranch on the land until the agency opens its own public equestrian center nearby, which is expected to happen next year.

The relocation caused unforeseen headaches for Caddin. He said he was required to make unanticipated improvements to the facility, which left him short of cash. And he was committed to keeping prices for the center’s services reasonable.

“I came in here on the condition that this [facility] was to be for the public and affordable,” said Caddin.

In October, the COSCA board voted to terminate Caddin’s agreement, saying he hadn’t paid rent, and City Councilman Andy Fox criticized the ranch operator for failing to meet the terms of the agreement. The board gave Caddin two years’ notice to vacate the premises.

Mayor Linda Parks, who was the lone dissenting vote in the COSCA action, said she was against removing the veteran horseman, partly because she was concerned the new equestrian facility wouldn’t be up and running on schedule. Parks also said that while she favored building the sort of upscale center that COSCA plans, she also sees a need for what Caddin provides.

“There are already some very nice private facilities for upper-income residents. We don’t want to lose a place where people who aren’t so well off can go riding and board their horses,” Parks said.

“I think of Bully Caddin as one of the roots of Thousand Oaks,” she added. “You don’t want to see people like Bully be a dying breed.”

But plans for the new equestrian center--which COSCA coordinator Mark Towne said is likely to be on the old Olympia Farms property southwest of Caddin’s--calls for a facility consistent with the posh new neighborhood, not the rugged open space that Caddin once knew.

“There are two reasons you don’t see a lot of [ranches like mine],” said Caddin, digging into a half-empty Marlboro pack. “One, land is valuable. Two, if you had the money, you wouldn’t put it into a place like this, because it’s just a living.” Caddin took a drag on his cigarette and looked thoughtful. “But it’s the only thing I know.”

Caddin said his aim has always been to “touch” the entire community. He’s lent farm animals to churches for Christmas pageants and saddles and hay bales to local businesses for western promotions. He holds weekly cowboy competitions and offers riding lessons and hayrides. But what he likes to talk about most is the kids who work at the ranch and how they learn to feel good about themselves.

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On one Saturday afternoon, a group of junior wranglers sat around a picnic table eating lunch. Ranch veteran Cody Collett, 14, from Newbury Park, said working with horses gave him something to do on Saturdays besides getting into trouble. Newcomer Cody Segal, 13, also from Newbury Park, said he liked taking care of the animals. The kids work for tips and ride when the rental horses aren’t busy.

“The kids who don’t go to the mall, go to the ranch,” said 15-year-old Dawn Moore.

The kids Caddin liked to help most were those from the now-closed Camarillo State Hospital. For six years, they brushed horses at the ranch once a week, and some even learned to ride.

“Some of those kids couldn’t talk, but up here they had a smile from ear to ear,” Caddin said.

Other budding equestrians might never have owned their own mount except for the ranch. Tabitha Ryan, 14, of Oxnard worked for a year and a half to save money to buy her horse, Casper. Now she works in exchange for Casper’s oats and hay.

“They learn responsibility,” said Sally Caddin, 29, who has worked with her dad since she was a child. “They take this seriously.”

So Caddin bides his time. He has another year on his lease and would like to be in the running to operate COSCA’s new public equestrian facility that will replace Two Winds Ranch. His chances may hinge on whether the activities he sees at the new facility, like team penning, will sit well with newcomers in 5,000-square-foot houses who expect to board their steeds at a state-of-the-art facility where they can ride in a ring instead of on the open range.

“I know you never get rich in this business,” said Caddin. “But I’ve been further up a tree than most people have been down the road, and there’s more than money involved. Just watching somebody enjoy themselves makes it worth it.”